US Corporate Leaders Call On Congress To Protect 'Dreamers'

Major industry leaders in the United States sent an open letter to Congress calling for legislation to protect immigrants brought illegally to the country as children, known as Dreamers.

The signatories, which include the heads of General Motors, Facebook, Coca Cola, Apple, Amazon, Google, AT&T and Microsoft, urged the Congress to pass a law that will give more than 700,000 immigrants legal protection to work and live in the U.S.

The letter was sent by the Coalition for the American Dream, an organization of business leaders representing major sectors of the U.S. economy pursuing a bipartisan, permanent legislative solution for Dreamers. Its membership includes more than 100 employers and trade associations spanning a variety of U.S. industries, from retail to manufacturing to tech, that represent more than half of American private sector workers.

"These are our friends, neighbors, and co-workers, and they should not have to wait for court cases to be decided to determine their fate when Congress can act now," the letter says.

Studies by economists estimate that failure to find a permanent legislative solution could cost US economy $350 billion in GDP, and the federal government $90 billion in tax revenue.

President Donald Trump is a staunch opponent of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an executive action by which President Barrack Obama protected minors known as Dreamers who entered the country illegally from deportation.

The corporate leaders warned that continued delay or inaction will cause significant negative economic and social impact to businesses and hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the country.